The Boys of Summer
by BoredorBoard
Summary: AU. Light gets a summer job as a pool boy, and along with it a houseful of quirky employers. It may just be the thing he needs to cure his chronic boredom. Light-L/Matt/Mello/Near friendship fic.
1. Meet the Lawliets

The Boys of Summer

Chapter 1: Meet the Lawliet's

AU. Light gets a summer job as a pool boy, and along with it a houseful of quirky employers. It may just be the thing he needs to cure his chronic boredom. Light-L/Matt/Mello/Near friendship fic

* * *

"Light, are you still looking for a summer job?' Light's father Soichiro Yagami asked after finishing a mouthful of calamari.

Light looked up from his dinner plate that he was staring bordly at while occasionally plucking something of it and sticking it in his mouth. "Yeah." He said, his voice laced with the same boredom. "Why do you ask?"

"One of the homicide detectives and I were talking, and he made mention of needing someone to help out at his house while he was out of the country with his wife on a case. He didn't want to put too much strain on his butlers, so I mentioned you and he said if you were up to it you were hired. A lot of the work will be outdoors but he promised to pay well for your services."

Light thought over this for a few minutes as his father waited patiently for the answer. "Well, since nowhere else seems to be hiring, I don't see why I should turn down such an offer. Tell him that as soon as he needs me I'll do it." Light said and began to pluck at his food again.

"He will be pleased to hear your answer." Soichiro said beaming at his son.

* * *

A couple of days passed since Light had been offered the job. Soichiro was late coming home, because of a case that he was working on, and he had good news for Light. "Light!" Soichiro called into the house.

Upstairs, Light's door opened and he calmly made his way downstairs to see what his father wanted. "Yeah, dad?" He questioned when he made his way into the living room where his father was putting his briefcase on the sofa.

"Aiber Lawliet, the man you'll be working for, decided he wants to meet you in person before entrusting his house to you. He'll see you tomorrow around noon. I wrote his address down for you." Soichiro pulled out a folded up piece of paper and handed it to Light. "I won't be able to take you there myself because of the case I'm on, but I'm sure you won't have any problems finding the place."

"Thanks dad." Light said with a small smile. "I'm going to go back upstairs and get to sleep now, I was just about to when you called for me. Mom put leftovers in the fridge for you."

"Thanks. Have a good night's sleep son."

"You too." Light said as he made his way back up the stairs to his room.

* * *

It was almost noon and Light was about half way to Aiber's house. He had decided on walking even though the house was halfway across town. To make a nice impression he wore a pair of his nicer jeans and his silky black button up, this was one of his father's coworkers after all, whatever he did would reflect on his father.

When he got there, he was surprised by how large the house was. It was only two stories, just like his, but it was also very wide in length. _They must be rich._ Light thought in awe. He made is way to the door and knocked three times on the solid oak door.

Half a minute later the door opened and an elderly looking man in a suit greeted him. "You must be Light Yagami." The man said in a soft baritone. Light just nodded at this statement. "Come in, Mr. Lawliet will be with you in a moment." The man, whom Light assumed was the butler, led Light into the living room where he noticed a large pile of building blocks in the middle of the room. "Wait here while I fetch him."

Light examined the large room. The walls and floor were both white, unnaturally so, which Light thought was odd considering that it appeared they had children. There was an entertainment system against the wall that to of had almost every game system in existence piled up around it, and the wall on either side of the wide screen plasma TV were lined with videogames and DVDs. Their sofa, love seat, and recliner were all made of black leather and they had a glass coffee table and side tables. Light took a seat on the sofa as he waited for Aiber.

After a few minutes a well dressed man with blond hair that reached his chin entered the room. "I'm sorry for the wait, I was taking an important call." He scowled when his eyes landed on the building blacks in the middle of the room. "I swear that boy needs to learn to pick up after himself when he's done playing. I'm sorry about the mess." The man looked light over for a minute and gave him a bright smile. "Your father said nothing but good things about you Light. I'm glad you agreed to this. I've been looking for someone I can trust to look after this place ever since I took this case. From your fathers descriptions of you, you sounded like a pretty nice kid. Even other investigators vouched for you."

Light could feel the embarrassment flow into his cheeks. Aiber noticed and let out a hearty laugh. "What exactly did they say?" Light asked, _they_ really meant his father. God help him if it was anything embarrassing.

Aiber seemed to read his mind. "It was nothing embarrassing. They were just bragging about your good grades and how you helped them solve a few cases in the past. To be honest, that is what got me to agree. Your father said you were saving up money for law school, so I told him I'd hire you to help you out."

"Thank you." Light said giving Aiber a warm smile. He was beginning to get comfortable with this man now, hew people always made him feel awkward, especially since he was meeting up with him without his father to introduce them. "Your a real life saver, everywhere I tried getting a job at wasn't hiring, and there was no way i was going to work at a fast food place. The last thing I want is to come home smelling like artery clogging food products and have grease caked onto me." Light let out an involuntary shudder.

Aiber laughed again. "That's good to hear, hopefully it means that you will check everything carefully when you begin work."

"Of course, I'm surprised that my father didn't brag about my neatness." Light said with a smug smile. Oh yeah, he was defiantly comfortable with Aiber now.

"Would you like a tour of the house?" Aiber asked now sensing Light's now comfortable attitude.

"Sure." Light said standing up and walking a couple of steps behind Aiber as he led him form the living room to the kitchen which had black marble floors and white walls with stainless steel cabinets, counters and appliances. In the middle of the room was a woman, with equally blonde hair as Aiber, who was chopping vegetables at the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"This is my wife, Wedy." He said and Wedy looked up from what she was doing and gave Light a curious stare. "Wedy, this is our new pool boy I was talking about, Light Yagami."

Wedy's features warmed up as Aiber said this. She wiped her hands clean and approached Light. "It's nice to meet you Light." She held out her hand for a moment, until she caught herself and chuckled lightly as she gave him a small bow. "Sorry about that, it's a western custom that I seem to be having trouble breaking." She then looked over at Aiber. "Has he met the boys yet?"

"Not yet." Aiber said. "Where are they?"

"In their rooms. Or at least they should be. Tell them if they don't have their messes cleaned up by dinner I'm going to punish them."

"What are you making?" Aiber asked.

"Beef stew." Wedy answered.

"Mmm..." Aiber sounded with a delighted expression. "Do you like beef stew Light?" He asked out of curiosity.

"I've never had it." Light answered.

"Your kidding... well it is a western dish, so I guess not." Aiber said rubbing his hand against the stubble on his chin.

"How would you like to stay for dinner?" Wedy asked.

"I-I don't think I should." Light said startled by the offer.

"It's not like it's any trouble. And it would give you a chance to properly meet the boys." Wedy urged.

"Meet the... no one mentioned I'd be baby sitting." Light scowled.

"I'd hardly call it that." Aiber said. "Roger and Watari will be taking care of them. Near is the youngest, he's eight, Matt and Mello are both twelve, and Ryuzaki is eighteen. They keep to themselves a lot, well except Mello, he's the only one you need to watch out for."

"And in case you were wondering about their ages in comparison to ours, none of them are actually ours, their adopted." Wedy explained. "I can't have children, so when we were in England a couple years ago we adopted them. They had been in the orphanage for a while, no one wanted them because of their quirks, and since we have the money we decided to take all four of them."

"We should continue the tour then." Aiber said disturbing the awkward silence that began to take over the room. Aiber led Light through the kitchen to the dining room, his study, showed him were the downstairs toilet was, and stopped in front of his room. "Light, I'm giving you free reign over my home, but this is one room that I will forbid your entry. Not even my boys are allowed in here."

"What's in there?" Light asked; his curiosity peeked.

"I will tell you because I don't want you to accidentally find out the hard way. Wedy and I are detectives that are known worldwide and are trusted by several countries. We have files in there that if put in the wrong hands could bring down an entire nation. Also have several bio-weapons locked safely away in there, diseases that would be very hard to find an antidote to in the time it would take for it to spread, weapons grade anthrax, and others that I'm sure you would rather not hear about. We also have a number of other weaponry such as swards, knives, cross bows, and guns.

"If you ever hear anyone in this room, you have my permission to enter it, but be cautious if you do. I have Watari and Roger go in daily to do an inventory check; I will order them to tell you when they do their daily check. If they tell you to leave the house at any time you WILL listen to them and take the boys with you. Do you understand me?"

Light couldn't form any words so he just nodded in response. _Just what have I gotten myself into?_

Aiber's mouth twitched into an uncomfortable smile and he cleared his throat. "Let's continue with the tour then shell we?" Light nodded and followed Aiber through the house until they reached a large staircase with solid oak arm railings that had figures of cherubs carved into the wood. Light marveled at this as Aiber led him up the stairs.

Aiber stopped in front of a door on Lights right and rapped on it a couple of times before he opened the door. Light's jaw dropped at the sight of it. It was as white as the living room... no, whiter, and the floor was covered with toys of all sorts with gaps between each cluttered area to allow actual movement in the room. sitting in the middle of the mess was a small child with white hair and dressed in what appeared to be white pajamas that were two sizes too big for him.

"Near, you mother wants this all cleaned up before dinner." Aiber said shaking his head at his youngest child.

"It is cleaned up." Near argued.

"It doesn't look like it to me." Aiber said raising an eyebrow at the boy.

"It is." Near said. "The fortress is in that corner." Near pointed to a pile of bricks that, now that after Light stared at it more thoroughly, actually looked like a building. "The mecha's are over there plotting its destruction." Near pointed to a cluster of robots. "The..."

"Alright, alright, just explain that to your mother when she checks on you. at least pick up your mess in the living room. It's embarrassing for company to see that."

Near just seemed to realize that Light was standing beside Aiber. "Oh, sorry. Who are you?"

"Light. And you're Near?" Light said.

"Obviously." Near said, rolling his eyes as if he thought Light was an idiot.

"Near." Aiber said in a warning tone. "I should have warned you, he's not like most eight year olds. He's smart and has a sharp tongue."

"Then I won't go easy on him." Light grinned. "Let's try this again. Hello Near, it's nice to meet you."

Near's eyes narrowed slightly. "Hi."

"He will be helping out with the house while your mother and I are out of the country. Treat him like you would Watari or Roger."

"Ok." Near said as he picked up a Gundam and began to adjust its arms in a fighting position.

Aiber sighed and led light out of the room and down the hall to another room. Again he knocked on the door, then entered. It was the opposite of Near's. The wall was black, as well as the floor. Candles and posters of American heavy metal bands lined the wall of the room. There was a strange smell in the far corner of the room which turnned out to be an inscent. He also noticed the stereo system, and the subwoofers. _Grreeeeeaaaat._ There was one thing that Light noticed was missing, the boy.

"He'll be in Matt's room then." Aiber said as if he read Light's mind, again.

They continued down the hall, making a turn, showing Light the upstairs toilet, and continuing until he reached a door that had caution tape zigzagging down it. Aiber knocked then entered. As soon as the door was opened they were met with the sound of a large explosion. Light's eyes wandered over the room that had so many movie and game posters you couldn't even tell what color the room originally was. There were two boys sitting on the edge of the bed, one was busy mashing buttons on his game controller while the other was yelling instructions at him.

"Matt, Pause that for a minute!" Aiber said rising has voice over the rapid gunfire that was resounding throughout the room. After a few seconds the game went silent and both of the boys turned their attention to Aiber and Light.

"Who the hell is that?" The blond boy asked.

"Mello, watch your mouth." Aiber warned.

"Fine," Mello rolled his eyes. "So who is he."

"This is Light Yagami, he will be helping Watari and Roger watch over the house while your mother and I are out of the country." Aiber said. "Light these are my middle children Mello and Matt."

"Yo." The redhead, who was obviously Matt, said while flicking his wrist in a very causal jester.

"This guy doesn't look too much older than me, and he looks younger than Ryuzaki. You expect _him_ to look after this place. He's probably just some stupid high schooler." Mello said.

"Mello." Aiber warned yet again, his voice low and cool.

"It's alright Aiber." Light assured. "I'm sure I will get him to change his mind about me." Light turned to stare Mello in the eye. "You will learn that I am not some 'stupid high schooler'. In fact I will be attending Todai University next fall."

"How are you sure?" Aiber asked, his voice laced with confusion.

"I'm that good." Light said with an arrogant smirk. "And I won't be surprised if I make one of the highest score."

"It's good that you're confidant." Aiber said with a laugh.

"It's not confidence really, it's fact." Light said, his gaze never leaving Mello.

"Alright, I take it back, you're not stupid. Damn you're annoying." Mello grumbled.

"I could say the same for you." Light shot back.

"Whoa boys, I can feel the animosity already. We still have a few more stops until we finish with the upstairs. And boys your mother wants your rooms cleaned by dinner, which means putting out those candles and inscent of yours Mello. Now."

"Fine." Mello grumbled and left Matt's side and brushed past Aiber and Light, purposely shoving Light with his shoulder.

"Sorry about him." Aiber apologized.

"It's alright." Light muttered. "Shouldn't we continue?"

Aiber just laughed and led Light from the room. he continued down the hall stopped in front of a door but didn't knock. "This is our guest room, if you ever feel like you should have to stay over night then you will sleep here." He then continued walking until her reached the last door in the hall. "This is my oldest son Ryuzaki's room." He said before knocking and entering.

The room was dark. The only light came from a computer monitor that was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, its light reflecting on an unnaturally pale face. "Ryuzaki, I would like to introduce you to Light Yagami. He will be helping with the house while your mother and I are out of the country."

There was a long pause as the pallid youth's spidery fingers scrolled over his keyboard. Then he finally spoke in a deep, drawling voice. "Light Yagami. Age seventeen. Birth date February 28. Blood type A. Occupation, student at Tou-oh privet academe. Aspires to be a detective like his father." Ryuzaki looked up from his monitor and stared at Light with blank black eyes. "Greetings Light Yagami, I am Ryuzaki."

"Er... hi." Light said, startled by the strangeness of the eighteen year old. _What's with this guy. He's so... creepy. _Ryuzaki continued to stare at Light with his onyx orbs, taking in all of Light's features. _Dear god he's studying me like I'm some kind of new species of human. Why does he have to be so weird?_

Aiber seemed to sense Light's uneasiness with Ryuzaki, so he told Ryuzaki when dinner was and left his room. _That settles it, I'm defiantly NOT going to eat dinner with them tonight. _Light shuddered at the thought of Ryuzaki staring at him like that all during dinner.

Aiber smirked. "Don't mind Ryuzaki. He doesn't trust people easily. I think it has something to do with his childhood, he never talks about it. Though maybe I should speak with him about being less invasive."

"At least tell him to stop staring at me like that." Light mumbled, earning a laugh from Aiber.

Aiber led Light back down the stairs and to the front door. "Are you sure you won't stay with us for dinner. Wedy's cooking is to die for."

"I'm positive." Light said.

Aiber opened the door for Light. "I've decided that i like you, and the boys seem to as well, you will start work next week. We won't be here, but Watari will fill you in on everything. We will also have a key made for you, so be sure not to loose it. The next time we see each other will be in a couple of weeks at the very least. It really depends on how long it takes to wrap up the case." Aiber explained. "Bye Light."

"Bye Aiber." Light said and left for home.

* * *

A/N: -Grins- Yes, Aiber and Wedy Lawliet. I couldn't help myself. :-) And instead of being hardened criminals they are famous detectives I changed L's age to give him an excuse to still be living at home, 'cause seriously being 25 and living at home would just be sad. Oh, and I didn't mention it, but it was Watari who answered the door. 

For those of you curious this will just be a friendship fic, no yaoi. And unlike all of my other fics, i have every chapter planned out, so depending on how much free time I get, i will be updating more often. I thought i'd try something new.


	2. First Day

Chapter 2: First Day

A/N: I would like to make mention about somethings that Oto-Chan13 brought up about Light. There is a reason for his innocents, this is how I perceive him in a world without the death note. I'm sorry if i made him not seem as smart or confidant in the last chapter, I guess i just put a bit of myself in his character (I feel a bit awkward when meeting people for the first time), not to mention the personalities of everyone in the house is extreamly differant from each other, and i think that would throw even Light off. But not to worry, he will be his normal smart and confidant self, with a only pinch of arrogance.

* * *

Light got up and dressed up casually, a black T-shirt and khaki's, for the first day of his new job. He stuffed a comb and pocket mirror in his pant pocket as well as his wallet and cell phone. Noticing it was going to be a sunny day Light put on a pair of expensive sun glasses that his mother had bought for him for graduating number one in his class, then left the house for the Lawliet's.

Light knocked on the Lawliet's door and waited until it was answered by the same man that had answered last time. "Ah, Light, I wasn't expecting you to be half an hour early."

"I hope you don't mind. I didn't want to leave a bad impression."

"Nonsense, Aiber was so pleased with you I'm sure he wouldn't have minded if you came two hours late."

"All the same, it wouldn't have felt right to me, er... sorry, I didn't catch your name yesterday."

"Forgive me, my name is Watari. Roger will not appear until after noon."

"So what exactly will I be doing here?" Light asked.

"Mostly outdoors work." Watari said as he led Light through the house to the kitchen. they almost made it to the glass double doors that led to the back yard when an outraged voice came from the direction of the dinning room.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Mello asked as he stormed into the room.

"What do you think I'm doing here, brat?" Light asked rolling his eyes at Mello's stupid question.

"Don't call me a brat, asshole." Mello said, but was silenced from saying any more by a slap across the face from Watari.

"What have your parents said about that tongue of yours young man?" Watari scolded. "You will treat Light with respect or else you will be getting more than a slap across the face."

Mello shot a glare at Light, grumbled incoherently, then stormed back into the dining room.

"I am sorry about Mello. He doesn't like new people."

"Really, I hadn't noticed." Light said, his voice laced with sarcasm. His expression then softened and he flashed Watari a confidant smile. "Mello is nothing I can't handle."

Watari smiled weirily towards Light's attitude towards the more destructive of the children. If only he knew what Mello was capable of he would not be taking him so lightly. Watari thought as he remembered what Mello was like the first week that he had to handle him. "Let us continue to the back yard then." Watari said as he opened the doors and the two of them walked outside.

Light took everything in with an awed expression. There was a large in ground pool in the middle of the yard. A couple yards from it was an oak tree that appeared to have some sort of a tree house in it. Along the right side of the house was a garden with rose bushes and several other types of flowers. A few feet past the flower garden was a shed. On the left side of the yard there was a sand box, which seemed to be used a lot because there was currently a very detailed sand castle built in it. Not too far from it was a swing set. On the right side of the patio was a glass picnic table equipt with an umbrella and four chairs, on the left side was a Jacuzzi.

Watari began talking again, snapping Light out of his reverie. "You will be in charge of cleaning the storm drains, the pool, mowing the lawn, general gardening, and trimming the hedges in the front yard. If Roger or myself need any assistance inside we will call you in. It's a lot of work, but they will pay you well for it. You may also take breaks when you feel the need, and Wedy told me to tell you that you are free to raid the fridge. She made fresh lemonaid especially for you yesterday and it would make her happy to know weather or not you like it."

"I'll be sure to do that then." Light said pleasantly. I hope she doesn't put too much sugar in it like Sayu does.

"I have one more thing for you before you begin your work." He handed Light a key ring with two keys on it. "This one is for the house, in case you should get locked out." There was a short pause at which they both were thinking about the same thing, Mello. He then held up the smaller key and continued. "This is the key to the shed. Everything you will need to get your jobs done will be in there. I will now leave you to get started." Watari handed him the keys and retreated into the house.

Light decided that he would begin with the storm drains, so he headed towards the shed to get a latter and the proper tools to do the job.

* * *

Meanwhile Mello was inside, plotting on Light's demise.

"Aw, come on Matt!"

"No Mello." Matt said mashing buttons on his Nintendo DS, uninterested in Mello's new scheme.

"Why not?" Mello pouted.

"I'm not getting in trouble for your stupid pranks... again." Matt mumbled.

"Please." Mello asked giving him his best puppy-eyed expression.

"No." Matt growled, beginning to become annoyed with Mello.

"At least be my look out." Mello tried.

Matt actually paused to think about this one. Finally he just shrugged and said "Ok."

Mello punched his fist into the air above his head in a show of victory. "Let's go Matt, we need to gather supplies."

Matt sighed, and without looking away from his game screen he followed Mello out of the room.

* * *

Bumblebee was sent flying into a skyscraper, the building falling apart all around him until it was a pile of rubble on top of him. Jetscream circled overhead, savoring his victory over the fallen Autobots. His victory was short lived when Optimus Prime came crashing into him, determined on avenging his fallen comrade. The leader of the Autobots and the second in command of the Decepticons went crashing to the ground below. Their tussle left several homes and vehicles carelessly torn apart and thrown around

Optimus Prime delivered a series of devastating blows to Jetscream, causing his circuits to begin to malfunction. Optimus Prime continued to pummel the Decepticon until his circuits flared one last time and he lay motionless on the battle field.

The battle switches to Ironhide verses Megatron, the Decepticon leader. Ironhide fired off, several different technologically advanced weapons, at Megatron. Megatron was able to either deflect or avoid most of the attack. The Decepticon leader then began to pummel Ironhide and throwing him into several buildings.

Before Megatron could finish off the battered Autobots, he was attacked from behind by Optimus Prime. The two leaders began their epic battle, their fight for humanity. The winner would decide the fate of the...

Near dropped his Transformers and carefully stepped over the mess of fallen building blocks and other various toys as he made his way to his bedroom door. He peered out of his room to investigate the noise that had disrupted his epic battle to the death. When Near saw the source of the noise he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Mello was sprawled across the hallway floor, various sports balls; tennis balls, base balls and golf balls mainly, rolling on the floor around him. Matt stood a safe distance from his fallen comrad, still mashing buttons on his DS while a un-Matt-like sack was slung over his shoulder.

"What are you two doing?" Near asked out of bored curiosity.

"Mello wants to..."

"Shut up Matt." Mello snapped suddenly. "What's it to you Near?"

"If you end up hurting him, Watari won't be too happy with you." Near warned, knowing that Mello had something planned for Light, and by the looks of it, it wasn't going to be pretty.

"You don't actually like that smart-mouthed punk do you?" Mello spat.

"I can't say. I don't really know enough about him to say yes or no." Near answered honestly.

"Hmph! Well, I don't." Mello huffed. "Come Matt, we still have things to do." Mello said, gathering his fallen balls, which took away from his grand exit, but they did eventually leave.

Near shook his head at the idea of Mello's stupid actions, then went back into his room to continue his game.

* * *

Light was just finishing with the storm drains when he felt something hard crack against his right shoulder. This nearly made him loose his balance on the latter, so he turned back to see the cause of the flying object, and he saw nothing. He headed back to his work, but this time instead of his shoulder, he was cracked upside the head. Light spun as quickly as he could on the latter, and saw a brief flash of yellow before it disappeared. He rubbed the back of his head and continued his work on the house.

After finishing, Light carefully descended down the latter, taking at least five hits before reachin the bottom. He had determined that the objects that were hitting him were various types of balls and he was more than likely going to go home with a bruised backside by the time he got home. However, his temper had been rising ever since the fist ball hit his shoulder, and he didn't plan on letting Mello get off free with his antics.

Light could hear another ball whizzing towards his head, that's when he acted. He whipped around and caught what ended up being a tennis ball with his bare hand. It stung a little bit, but the reaction he got out of Mello was worth it.

Mello was gawking at Light as if he had grown a second head.

"Hey Mello, what's wrong?" Matt's bored sounding voice came from the other side of the house. "It looks like you've just stepped into a big puddle of stupid." Matt rounded the corner to see what Mello was gawking at. Light's expression made even him freeze in place, and he wasn't the one the death glare was directed at. "Well, uh... As a completely uninterested third party member of this little mess, I'm going back over there." Matt said and began to walk back to his little corner.

"Matt you traitor!" Light took this time to chuck the tennis ball back at Mello, nailing him in the head. The blow made Melo loose his balance and he fell over on the ground. He let out an angry growl and chucked the ball back at light, who avoided it easily. "Matt, throw me the sack." he called, and not too long after, the sack of balls came flying towards Mello, who had to side step to avoid them. Despite Matt's lazy appearance and general disinterest in sports, the preteen had one hell of an arm.

* * *

Up in his room Ryuzaki heard a loud noise from outside. He got up from his cold computer cluttered floor and walked to his window, which was pointed to the back yard. He pressed his forehead to the window and watched Mello and Light as they tried to kill one another with the sports balls.

Ryuzaki caught himself wincing every time a ball hit one of them. He could tell by the way the two boys were throwing the balls that each blow had to hurt.

This continued for a while until one of Light's throws was poorly angled, due to the fact that he was still kneeling down when he threw it, and it went flying towards Ryuzaki's window, narrowly missing his face as it went crashing through the glass.

When Ryuzaki looked back out side Light was gone, and Mello was staring up at the window with traces of fear in his face. Ryuzaki looked back into his room to locate the ball. He found it, a tennis ball, next to one of his monitors. He heard footsteps rushing towards his door, so he made his way to his door and opened it for the out of breath teen.

Light stared at the older teen with curiosity. Ryuzaki held the tennis ball out to Light, and Light hesitated before taking it from him. Neither of them said anything until Ryuzaki reached out and touched a spot on Light's forehead, just under his hair line. Light winced and Ryuzaki pulled back to reveal a smudge of blood on his fingers.

"Light should have Watari look at his wounds for him." L muttered.

"Are you alright? I saw you in the window before the ball crashed through. I didn't hurt you did I? You didn't get cut by the glass or anything did you?"

"I'm quite fine Light. You should go clean yourself up, Watari and Roger sould be back shortly."

"O-ok." Light said awkwardly. The door was shut not even half a minute alter, so he was staring at Ryuzaki's door for a while before turnning back and leaving.

Ryuzaki picked up a shard of glass and put the smudge of blood that he had goten from ight's head wound and smeared as mush as he could on to it. he then placed another shard on topof that one to preserve the sample. He was going to analyze the blood sample later, he had to get as much information about Light as possible.

* * *

When Light got back outside he saw Mello talking to Matt who was actually looking at Mello when he talked instead of the game he was playing. As soon as Mello spotted Light he stopped talking to Matt. "Hey moron, did you hurt him?" Mello asked refering to Ryuzaki.

Light scowled. "I'm not a moron, brat."

"Is he alright?" Mello asked with a tone of annoyance.

"Of course. Do you honestly think I'd be out here bickering with you if he were. Besides," Light threw the retrieved tennis ball at Mello. "It's your fault this all happened."

Behind them someone cleared their thoat. Light and mello turnned to see that it was Watari and another older man that Light assumed was Roger. "May I ask what went on here?" Watari asked noticing that the yard was littered with balls.

"Mello decided to become a pain and began pelting me with his balls. Which may I add was a dangerouse thing to do considering that I was on the latter when he started." Light growled.

"You snitch!" Mello exclaimed. "Don't forget to mention that you were in on it too."

"Only in retaliation." Light snapped.

"You broke Ryuzaki's window." Mello said pointing at the shattered glass. Watari and Roger glanced up at the broken window.

"That was an accident." Light was livid now.

"Is he alright?" Watari asked.

Light nodded. "I went up to check on him."

"Yeah, cause he almost hit him in the face with it."

Watari stood silent for a minut before he started to talk. "Light you may take a break now. And as for you Mello, you get to clean up this mess. I'm going to speak to Ryuzaki while Roger keeps an eye on you so don't think about slacking off."

Watari went inside and Light followed. Light went to the fridge and there was a note for him.

_'Light, you have permission to raid the fridge and eat whatever you want. If you wish you may ask Watari for anything you may want and he will gladly pick it up for you when ge goes to get groceries. If you ever decide to stay for dinner, Watari cooks really well. I made you some lemonade, so at least drink that. I hope I got it right, i figured that you'd be more like Matt and Near and not like it too sweet. If you need to add more sugar we have plenty in the cabinet beside the fridge. Good luck, Wedy.'_

Light opened the fridge and pulled the lemonade out. He then raided the cabinets for glasses. When he found them, he grabbed one and filled it with the yellow liquid, it had wedges of lemon in it, so he hoped that it was made with real lemons. And it was. Wedy had made it perfectly.

"Light." Matt voiced behind him.

Light turned around to see what Matt wanted. "What is it Matt?"

"Since you're not doing anything and Mello is being punished, would you like to play a game with me?"

"What kind of game?" Light asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Xbox. Halo 2. Are you interested?" Matt said simply.

"I don't see why not." Light answered. "I've never used the Xbox controllers though, so you'll have to give me a quick run through."

"I'm fine with that." Matt said and they walked into the living room. Matt hooked up the correct consol and pulled Halo 2 off of the game shelf. He ran Light through the controls and rules of the game while he helped Light design his character. "We'll play until twenty kills." Matt said as he finished setting the game up. "Ready?" Light nodded and Matt pushed start. there was the count down from ten and the game begun.

At first it took a while for Light to get the hang of the camera angles, locking on to his target, and duel wielding weapons. So far the game was eleven to three, matt was winning. Light's character was waiting in a sniper position for Matt to come into view. His eyes accidentally wandered to Matt's half of the screen and he saw something glowing in his characters hand.

"What's that thing?" Light asked.

Matt grinned like a madman. "The plasma sword." Matt rounded a corner, and not too long later, the score was at twelve to three.

The game continued on until one of them reached twenty. The end score was twenty to nine. During this time Light had developed a deep rooted hatred for the plasma sword, but had become quite fond of his plasma grenades and needler.

"You're pretty good Light." Matt complemented. "Not even Mello could get that many kills on his first try. We should do this again sometime."

"That would be nice." Light said getting up. "I'd better get back to work."

Light worked for the rest of the day. Eventually Watari told him he could stop and pick up where he left off the next day.

On Light's way home he recalled the day he had, which despite the incident with Mello and the window was pretty good. The Lawliet boys were interesting to say the least. Matt was quiet and a bit of a video game junkie but so far he liked him the best. Mello was just a pain in his nether regions. Ryuzaki was still creepy, but not as much as he seemed the first time they met. He didn't see Near all day so he didn't really have much of an opinion on him yet.

When he got home Light ate dinner with his family. After dinner he showered and went to sleep, exhausted from the days work.

* * *

A/N: I would have gotten this up sooner, but I had to finish a paper for school. And my friend James got a hold of Death Note 13: How to Read so I wanted to finish reading through that. i also go caught up reading New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, it's the second book of a really good vampire/werewolf series.

James also got ahold of Death Note: Another Note, so when he's done with it I will be reading it. I'm so happy:-)

If you all can't tell, I'm a fan of Transformers. (I hope that bit didn't confuse you) I think I'm having about as much fun as Near is with his toys.

I was going to have Matt and Light play Halo 3, but I haven't played it yet, so I don't know what it is like at all. That bit may have been rushed, but I didn't want to drag out the game and mention every kill and what not.


	3. Brotherly Love

Chapter 3: Brotherly Love

* * *

After a few days of work, it became routine. Work, bicker with Mello, work, trip over one of Near's toys, get challenged to a game by Matt, work some more while having the creeping suspicion that he was being watched the entire time. Ryuzaki and him hadn't seen each other since the incident with the balls, or at least Light never saw Ryuzaki.

Currently Light was mowing the lawn while Matt, Mello, and Near played in the pool. At least Matt and Mello were, Near was sitting on the diving board constructing a card tower.

Light froze when he heard a scream and a splash from behind him. He turned off the mower and turned to see what happened.

Mello was standing on the diving board with a triumphant look on his face while below him Near was struggling to get up. It took Light until Near was fully submerged to realize what happened. He kicked off his shoes and ran to the pool, diving in after the drowning boy. Near was almost to the bottom when Light reached him. He grabbed the boy and frantically kicked to the surface. Once up he pulled the boy and himself out of the water, and then checked to see if he was breathing. He wasn't.

Light positioned Near correctly and proceeded to give Near CPR. After a few tries, Near began to cough up water. His gaze never left the boy as he coughed and gasped for breath. When he was finally stabilized, Light glanced up and his eyes locked on Mello's with a deadly glare.

"Matt." Light growled. "Take Near inside."

Matt nodded and began to help Near up. The younger boy was weak on his feet, so Matt picked him up and carried him inside.

Once they were inside Light turned on Mello. "What the hell were you thinking?" he fumed. "You could have killed him!"

Mello didn't say anything. He just stared down at his feet and avoided Light's accusing glare.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you." Light snapped. Mello looked up. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"How was I supposed to know he couldn't swim?" Mello countered.

"He's your brother, you should know this by now." Light said. "Besides, he is only eight!"

"He's not my brother." Mello growled. "And what does it matter to you what happens to him?"

"He may not be family, but he is a human. He was going to die if I didn't save him. You weren't going to jump after him, that much is sure, but why?"

"I hate him. I've hated him since I met him in that damn orphanage in London!"

"That's no excuse to do what you did." Light growled and grabbed Mello by the arm.

Mello jerked away and elbowed Light in the stomach. Despite the sudden pain, Light lashed out at Mello, smacking him across the face. He then grabbed a large clump of his blond hair and pulled him towards the house.

"Ow! Let go damn it! That hurts you asshole!" Mello complained, trying to tug free but Light's grasp never loosened.

"Tough luck. Keep moving brat, the more you struggle, the more it's going to hurt." Light drug Mello into the living room and made him sit on the recliner. "You will not move from this spot until Watari gets back, then you'll have _him_ to deal with."

Not too long later Matt and Near came downstairs, both boys fully dressed and carrying a handful of towels each. Matt threw a couple on Mello so that he could dry off. The rest went to Light, who was dripping all over the plush carpet. He asked Matt where the laundry room was, and then shoved his clothes in the washer to wash the chlorine out. He left his silk black boxers on so that he wasn't completely naked, and then wrapped one of the towels around his waist. He then draped one over his shoulders, and attacked his hair with the other.

When Light returned to the living room the boys were watching a TV drama that Light recognized. "I like this show." Light said, now calmed down a little bit.

"What is it?" Matt asked. "I've never seen it before... and neither has Mello or Near."

"It's called Nobuta wo Produce. Its about these two boys Shuji, the most popular boy in school, and Akira, the school weirdo, trying to make this really shy girl, Nobuko, become popular because she is constantly picked on and is considering suicide."

"If her name is Nobuko, why do they keep calling her Nobuta?"

"It's a nickname. I don't want to ruin the series for you, it's really good. Sayu and I used to watch it together."

"Hm..." Matt sounded and they all began to watch it, except for Near who was playing with a few of his toys, although he did look up occasionally.

They were silent the whole time the show was on. When it ended Light got up, went to the laundry room to check on his clothes, and put them in the drier.

"So what happens in the beginning of the show?" Mello asked when Light entered the room. "I don't like the feeling that I'm missing something."

"Are you actually attempting a conversation with me?" Light asked.

Mello let out a sigh. "Soooorry, I'll try to be more rude next time."

"I didn't mean it that way." Light explained. "It's just that you never just talk to me. There's usually some sort of violence involved."

"If that's how you like it..." Mello started. "If you don't tell me what happened, then I will be forced to hurt you."

Light laughed at this. "You hurt me... that's funny." Light paused and flashed him a smile. "I could just bring it over tomorrow. Sayu bought it for my birthday last year."

Mello's eyes lit up. "Really? Sweet!"

"Yes, I have converted yet another to Nobuta's power!" Light said and laughed a fake evil laugh.

It was at that time when Watari entered the house. "You boys seem to be enjoying yourselves." He then seemed to notice that Light and Mello were not dressed while Matt and near were. "May I ask what happened to your clothes?" Watari addressed to Light.

"Do you want to tell him or should I?" Light asked Mello.

"I guess I should." Mello grumbled. "You see Watari, I didn't know that near couldn't swim, so I pushed him off of the diving board." Watari raised an eyebrow at him, but Mello continued. "Light jumped in and saved him. Then he decided to have me sit in here until you got back."

"Hm. I can tell there are a few details that you are not telling me and that you are in more trouble than it would appear. You are restricted from eating chocolate for a week. Light you have the day off tomorrow, Mello will be doing your work."

"But Watari, that's not fair!" Mello whined

"I am being lenient with you young man."

"Watari." Light said. "You wouldn't mind if I came over tomorrow anyway do you? I promised the boys I'd bring over a series for them to watch."

Watari gave Light a polite smile. "I don't see why not." Mello's spirits seemed to lift a little.

"I'd better finish up what I was doing. I at least want to fish out Nears things." Light said and headed outside. He noticed that the clouds were starting to grow dark. "Watari, once I finish with the pool I'm going to go home." Light called into the house.

Still dressed only in his boxers, Light leapt into the pool and began collecting Near's cards and the water toys that Mello and Matt were playing with earlier. Halfway through his gathering, it began to sprinkle, by the time he came up with his last armful of things it was poring. Light swam to the edge of the pool and saw Watari waiting for him with an umbrella. Light got out and they walked back to the house together.

"Your father called." Watari said. "He told me that there is a really bad storm heading this way and he doesn't want you out in it. Although I failed to mention that it was too late for that, but i am confidant that you won't catch a cold that quickly. He wanted to make sure it was alright that you stayed here and i told him yes."

"So I'm staying the night here then." Light confirmed. Watari gave him a nod.

"Feel free to take a shower, I will set something out for you to wear to bed and prepare supper."

"I almost forgot to ask, where is Roger?" Light asked.

"His grand daughter is ill and he wanted to check on her. He will be back tomorrow."

"That's good. I think I'll take that shower now." Light said.

Light took a long hot shower and when he was finished he found that there was a pair of black Egyptian cotton pajamas waiting for him in the guest room. He got dressed and headed downstairs. Once he reached the last step he could smell whatever it was Watari was cooking, and it smelt good.

When he entered the dining room, he saw that Ryuzaki was already at the table. He was sitting in the most peculiar way and eating, of all things, cake. His fingers were pinching his fork as if he were afraid the thing was going to eat him. "Light, staring is quite rude." Ryuzaki said without looking in his direction.

Light blinked a couple of times and walked pass Ryuzaki to the kitchen, where Watari was just finishing their meal. The meal in question consisted of baked lemon chicken, stir fried vegetables, and noodles with chicken flavoring. Watari told Light to help himself while he rounded up Matt, Mello, and Near.

Light filled his plate with a reasonable amount of food and made his way to the dinning room where Ryuzaki was still sitting in his unusual position. He seemed to make the terrible decision of sitting across from him, because while he at he could feel Ryuzaki's wide-eyed gaze on him. He glanced up at Ryuzaki and it only confirmed his suspicion.

"It's rude to stare Ryuzaki." Light said mimicking his previous statement. Ryuzaki, unlike Light, continued to stare at him. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"No, Light's face is perfect."

"Then why do you keep staring at me?" Light asked with a touch of annoyance.

"Light is intriguing." Ryuzaki finished the rest of his cake, saving the strawberry for last, then left the table without a word.

Ryuzaki left light irritated all throughout his supper. The other boys seemed to lift some of his annoyance before he excused himself from the table.

He began to make his way to the staircase when he heard a noise from the direction of Aiber's room. He snuck closer and peered in to see that it was only Watari. Watari spotted light and invited him in. "My apologies Light, i forgot to tell you that i would be in here this evening."

"That's alright Watari." Light said. "Aiber said that you'd be doing inventory. What are you working on?"

"Well, i had just finished with the bio chemicals, all present and accounted for, and now I will be moving on to the weaponry. Would you like to assist me? I usual have Roger help me with this."

"Of course." Light said as he moved closer to where Watari was now standing. Watari bunched in a series of numbers on a keypad on the wall, and then the bookcase pushed out and to the side, revealing an entire wall of various guns.

As Watari and Light ran through the checklist they talked.

"So what's Mello's problem with Near? He said that he hated him." Light asked.

"I'm not entirely certain, but I think Mello has a bit of an inferiority complex." Watari had a thoughtful expression on his face. "I don't believe that Mello hates Near either. He resents that Near has equal or possibly greater intelligence than him, but he doesn't hate him."

"I see." Light said. "What about Ryuzaki? It seems like he is always staring at me, and to tell you the truth, it's kind of creepy. And the way he sits is odd too, and the way he eats... well, he is just a really strange guy."

"There is a reason for his quirks Light, though I'm not sure that he would approve of me telling you them. But I can tell you is that he has trust issues and in a way he's a little paranoid. My guess is that he is trying to decide weather or not it would be safe for him to consider being your friend." Watari flashed Light a smile. "He's also a little germaphobic, that is why he holds utensils the way he does."

"I take it's bad, what happened to him I mean." Light asked and Watari just nodded solemnly.

The two of them continued the inventory check and ended up completing within an hour. Once they were finished, Light excused himself and went to bed.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the lack of L in this chapter... please dont hurt me... I promise that he won't be one of those lame background characters that dwell in the shadows of the other characters. I tried to incorperate Near more too... I even drowned him to give him more attention.

To be honest, I had this written two days ago, but it just took me until today to run it through spell check XD. I'll try to update again this weekend.

Ok, shameless promotion... you must watch Nobuta wo Produce!!! it's a really good Japanese Drama, and Shuji reminds me of Light so much... and Akira kind of reminds me of L :-) You can find it at this site... www DOT crunchyroll DOT com ... It has Movies dramas Anime and a lot more... all in japanese (with Subs)!!!


	4. Arigato

Chapter 4: Arigato

* * *

Light woke up in the middle of the night to wind and rain pounding harshly against the guest room window. He would have gone back to sleep, but he then noticed that the foot of his bed was sagging slightly. He looked over, his eyes adjusting to the darkness, and he saw Ryuzaki staring at him. the pale man's obsidian eyes were wide, he was not expecting Light to wake until the morning.

"What the hell are you doing?" Light asked in a dangerous voice. He was tired and didn't care how rude he sounded towards his creepy host. Ryuzaki was starting to seem like a stalker now. Light didn't care what kind of tragic past the older teen had, there was a little thing called privacy that he was just not respecting.

"I am sorry Light, I didn't intend on you waking up until the morning." Ryuzaki said.

"That doesn't answer my question." Light rolled his eyes and glanced over at the digital clock beside his bed. "Are you crazy, it is two in the morning, what are you still doing up?"

Ryuzaki smiled to himself as though he were enjoing a joke that only he got, which was probably the case. "I couldn't sleep. It's nothing to worry yourself about."

"I wasn't worried." Light grumbled. "Will you leave now? I can't sleep with you in here staring at me." He said not wanting to bother with why Ryuzaki was in his room to begin with.

"Very well." Ryuzaki said hopping off of Light's bed. He was halfway to the door when there was a loud crash of thunder and a scream echoed through the house. "Mello." Ryuzaki deduced in his usual monotone.

When L didn't seem to be moving to see what was wrong with his brother, Light scrambled out of bed and pushed past the raven-haired teen. He was halfway down the hall then there was another loud bang of thunder and a muffled scream from Mello's room.

Light rushed into the room and saw Mello curled into a ball on the floor in the corner furthest from his window, crying into his pillow. Light Made his way to the terrified boy and gently put his hand on the top of his head so that he didn't startle the boy too much. Mello flinched, and then looked up, fear welling in his eyes as he stared at Light.

A few moments passed and the thunder resounded once more causing the blond to screech and hide his face in his pillow once more. Light pried the pillow from Mello's grasp and then pulled him into his arms. Light knew exactly what the problem was, Sayu had the same problem, he was...

"Astraphobia." Ryuzaki deduced, startling Light who hadn't noticed that Ryuzaki had followed him.

"It doesn't take a genious to figure that one out Ryuzaki." Light growled while trying to comfort Mello.

It was at that time that Matt came rushing into the room, not caring that he almost knocked Ryuzaki over in the process. He knelt next to Light and Mello and put a pair of head phones on the blonds head. "This should help." Matt said turning on the music.

A crash of Lightning resounded through the room and Mello dug his surprisingly sharp nails into his skin and buried his face into his chest. He pit back another scream and didn't look back up until he calmed down. He sniffled and swiped his arm over his eyes to brush away the tears that had leaked out. "This music sucks Matt." mello said in a choked voice.

Matt smiled warmly then left their side to raid Mello's music collection. He grabbed an American CD, Metallica, and popped in into the CD player then turned the volume up all the way. In fact it was so loud that Light could hear it perfectly. He could easily translate the music if he wanted to, but somehow he felt it would be better if he didn't.

After a while Mello began to drift off in Light's arms, Matt and Ryuzaki had left the room at this point. Light smiled warmly and picked the boy up and carried him to his bed. He tried to set the boy down, but he had a firm grip on his night clothes. Light decided it wouldn't hurt anything, so he got onto the bed with Mello and wrapped Mello's blanket around the two of them. It took a while, but eventually Light fell asleep with his arms wrapped protectively around Mello.

* * *

When Light woke up in the morning it took him a few seconds to remember what happened last night and that Mello was already up and out of bed. Light decided to follow suit and crawled out of the bed and headed towards the door. Just as he was reaching for the handle, the door opened and he saw that it was Mello.

"It's about time you got your ass up." Mello said, back to his normal self. "I thought I'd never get my room to myself."

"Get over it brat, I'm going to take a shower" Light said making a wave motion that indicated for Mello to move over.

"Good, I don't want your stink infecting my room."

"You got that backwards, it's your room that stinks."

"No way, it's you. I'd know, you were practically smothering me with your oder this morning." As soon as the sentence was finished an awkward silence fell over the two of them. "Thanks. For last night I mean."

"No problem." Light said, flashing one of his signature smiles.

"Alright, no mushy stuff, get going." Mello said delivering a soft kick to the back of Light's thigh.

* * *

After Light's shower, he went back to the guest room, and found that there were some clothes laid out for him. The clothes, like the pajamas, probably belonged to Aiber. He got dressed without complaint and went downstairs to make something to eat. When he got into the kitchen, he found that he was too late, Watari had already made breakfast. He handed Light a plate with an American style breakfast of eggs sunny-side-up, bacon, sausage, and toast.

Light ate all of his breakfast and when he was done he took the plate back to the kitchen, insisting that Watari let him wash it.

"Thank you for what you did for Mello." Watari suddenly said.

"Hn? Oh, it was nothing. I do the same thing for Sayu when there is a thunderstorm."

"Mello has never had an older brother to care for him like that. As you can tell by now, Ryuzaki isn't really much of a brother to any of them. It's nice for them to have someone older to help them with things like that."

"I hope they don't become too attached to me." Light said solemnly. "I won't be working here forever. I'm not sure that I will keep working after summer ends."

"That's true. But if you are going to start warning them, then I should warn you about the same thing. I can see how fast you seem to be warming up to them. You're treading dangerous ground by making bonds that you intend to sever one day. You all will get hurt that way."

What Watari was saying actually struck a cord with Light. Was he actually becoming too attached to these boys? Would he be able to handle leaving them? Light shook off that feeling and resumed what he was doing. "I guess I'll just have to deal with that when the time comes." Light looked out of the glass doors leading to the back yard and grimaced at the sight. The storm had blown leaves, sticks, sakura blossom petals and clumps of mud everywhere. "You might want to wait until tomorrow to make Mello do the yard work."

"I'm sure he'd appreciate the gesture, but he knows that when I make up my mind about something he will follow through with my demands, no matter how bad things may have turned against him. You have the day off Light, enjoy it."

Light sighed and left the kitchen, it was really no use arguing with the old man.

Light spent a few hours watching Matt play some game involving ninjas in bright orange jogging suits fighting other ninjas in equally weird clothes. He occasionally battled against Matt. Once he was a ninja in green spandex another time he was the little emo looking one who seemed to have a grudge against his brother, who Light thought was a girl until Matt told him differently. He eventually grew bored with the game and decided to go out back to see how Mello was doing with the yard.

When Light got outside he was surprised to see how much Mello got done. He stretched out and was pleased with how the weather felt, it was a perfect day for a swim. He made up his mind and told Watari that he'd be right back, he was going to get some swimming trunks form home.

After a good half an hour, Light returned to the Lawliet house ready for a nice relaxing swim. The best part of it was that he'd have the pool to himself since Mello and Matt were battling to the death on the Xbox

* * *

Without even testing the water, Light climbed up the diving board, bounced once, then did a back flip into the water. After he broke the surface he instantly began swimming laps. Gradually his breast strokes died down until finally he just let himself float over the water's surface, eye's closed, letting the sun kiss his nicely tanned body.

He continued this way for a while until he heard a creak above him. He opened his eyes and saw that he was almost directly under the diving board and someone was staring down at him. Startled, Light lost his balance on the surface of the water and sunk under for a couple seconds before breaking back through the surface. Once he was up and properly treading the water he looked up, and saw that it was Ryuzaki who had been watching him. Somehow this didn't shock him.

"What are you doing Ryuzaki?"

"Light looked so peaceful." He replied, watching Light in wonderment.

"You didn't answer my question. And now that I am properly awake I'm going to ask you again why you were watching me sleep."

"Light looked peaceful then too." Ryuzaki said.

"That is not an answer, what was your reason for doing it?"

"I have told you." Ryuzaki said. "You intrigue me."

"You are so weird."

"So I have been told."

The two of them stared at each other for a while until Light broke the silence. "You know, this is the first time I've seen you outside of the house. Why is that?"

"You must be getting tired from treading water like that Light. Would you rather lean agains the edge of the pool so that you do not cramp up and drown yourself."

"Surely I wouldn't drown. You'd save me wouldn't you?" Light said trying to make converstaion as he swam to the edge of the pool, Ryuzaki followed and knelt in his odd sitting position by the latter, Light swam to him.

"I have never swam before." Ryuzaki said.

"You don't know how to swim?" Light asked in disbelieve. he could understand Near not knowing, but Ryuzaki is eighteen, he should know this by now.

"I never said that I did not know how, I have read up on how to do all of the motions, I have just never practiced it in the water."

"It's nothing like in the book's Ryuzaki."

"I can see that Light."

"why have you never tried it before?" Light asked. Ryuzaki looked down as if he were embarrassed. "What can you be embarrassed about? The only people that would ever see you would be your family."

"I don't want to ask anyone to teach me." L mumbled.

"Hm, I guess i can understand that, pride is something everyone clings to." Light said, then paused to ponder something. "I could teach you if you want. I taught my sister how to swim and now she's tempted to join the swim team, I don't have the heart to tell her that she doesn't stand a chance though."

Ryuzaki stared into the pool's depth for a moment. "I don't know." He mumbled.

"If you're worried, we can start in the shallow end of the pool, it's only three feet deep over there."

Ryuzaki's lips twitched into a small smile and he gave Light a nod. "Good, go put some swimming trunks on."

"..."

"Do you even have any?" Ryuzaki shook his head. "You could borrow your fathers couldn't you."

"..."

"Oh, I forgot. Watari told me you were germaphobic."

Ryuzaki bit his thumb, then stood up and removed his shirt and pants. "Will this be fine Light?" Ryuzaki asked unsure of himself as he stood in front of the younger teen in his navy blue boxers.

"It'll be fine." Light said and led Ryuzaki into the shallow end. He waited patiently as Ryuzaki descended the ladder. "Let's start out with having you just float on your back." Light instructed. "I'll keep my hands under you incase you aren't buoyant enough.

Skeptically Ryuzaki leaned back into the water and reluctantly let his feet lift from the pool's floor. He relaxed once he felt Light's gentle hands rest gently on his back. Ryuzaki opened his eyes that he didn't realize he had closed and saw Light looking back down at him.

"Now I want you to glide across the water by moving your arms and legs, I'll swim ahead of you, but I'll be close enough for a quick rescue if I have to."

Ryuzaki felt Light's hands retreat from his back and splash a couple feet away. Ryuzaki did as Light requested without any complications.

That's good Ryuzaki, see, swimming isn't that scary."

"I never said I was too scared to do it Light." Ryuzaki siad with slight annoyance.

"Either way, you're a natural."

"I believe that anyone with a set of working lungs can do this much Light." Ryuzaki said, obviously knowing that it was the air in his lungs that was keeping him buoyant.

"That's true, but you seemed skeptical at first."

"That is because, as I have previously stated, I have never done this before." Ryuzaki grumbled as Light treaded water without a care. His eyes widened for a second and he glanced over at Light, who was beside him treading water. That meant he had...

Without realizing it, Ryuzaki had forgot about taking in another breath and sank below the surface. Ryuzaki frantically tried to copy Light's actions of treading water, but he was too panicked. He felt a pair of strong hands grab him around the chest and pull him to the surface. After they broke through, Light kept hold of Ryuzaki with one arm and used the other to make it to the side of the pool so that Ryuzaki could hold onto the ledge.

"You did that on purpose!" Ryuzaki accused when he had a firm grip on the pool's ledge.

"Guilty." Light grinned. "I wanted to test your reaction to getting into the deepend without realizing it."

"That was dangerous." Ryuzaki scolded.

"No it wasn't." Light defended. "I told you I'd be close enough to rescue you if I had to. And you know that I know CPR. You were in no danger. As long as you are with me you will be safe." Light put a hand on Ryuzaki's shoulder. "What do you say to continuing our lesson?"

Light held his hands out for Ryuzaki to grab. "I have no objections." He said grabbing one of the hands.

"When you grab the other kick your feet as I drag you away. I'm going to teach you how to tread water first. Remember, I will be right beside you, so don't panic." Ryuzaki grabbed Light's other hand and the day's swimming lessons finally began.

* * *

A/N: I loved writing that first part, (I'm talking about the bit with Light and Mello, not L being a creepy stalker and watching Light sleep) 

Making fun of Naruto Ultimate Ninja was fun too (and dont get me wrong, I love Naruto, Im a Narutard through and through... my friends call me Itachi for christs sake!) Ninjas I made fun of: Naruto, Lee, Sasuke, and Itachi

I got the idea for the Light teaching L to swim from Shadow-L-Chan's comment that Light should have been a life guard :-)

See people, your comment's do count! More comment's equal posable plot bunnies wich equal more fun chapters. And because of the nice weather outside, the next chapter will be really fun


	5. Bonding

Chapter 5: Bonding

* * *

As the days passed, Ryuzaki began to become a compitant swimmer under Light's watchful eye. Mello and him were fighing less and less. He also decided to help the younger three with their kanji, Ryuzaki already knew how to read and wright it perfectly. It was easy to easy to say that when he was with the Lawliet boys he was never bored.

As he was about to leave home for a fresh day of work, he mother stopped him. "Light honey, is there any way that you can take a day off to watch Sayu. Your father and I will be out and none of her friends can have her over today. You know how I feel about leaving her alone at home at her age."

"I'm twelve mom!" Sayu argued, stomping into the room. "All of my friends are aloud to stay home alone."

"You are not like all of your friends dear." Sachiko argued back.

"Gah! You're so unfair!" Sayu stomped her foot.

"Throwing a tantrum isn't changing my mind Sayu."

"But mooooooom!"

"No." sachiko said remaining firm with her decision.

"I have an idea. Sayu can come to work with me." Light suggested, hoping to stop their bickering. "She can swim or play videogames with Matt, I know he needs some new challengers, anything really. You'd have fun, Matt and Mello are both your age, so you'd have someone to play with."

"That's a good idea. What do you say Sayu?"

"Hm... how big is the pool?" Sayu asked.

"It's pretty big." Light said.

After a minute of intence decision making Sayu decided to and got her swimsuit.

When he got to the Lawliet'she saw roger picking up something that Near had left on the floor. "Hey Roger, where is Watari? I want to introudce my sister, Sayu."

"I'm afraid he had to take the day off. He has a grandaughter in London, England that became hospitalized and he wanted to be with her."

"That's too bad. I hope she gets better." Light said. "Sayu, this is Roger. He and Watari are the butlers here."

"Hi." Sayu said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Roger said with a nod.

"Where are the boys?"

"Matt and Mello are outside, I think Near is too, and Ryuzaki is in his room."

"No surprise there." Light said. "Let's go Sayu."

When the two of them got outside Mello had just tackled Matt into the pool and the two wreastled around for dominance, trying to keep the other under. Near was in the sand box making what looked like a sand city, nearby were his robots, whom were more than likely going to destroy the sand structures.

"Matt, Mello!" Light called.

It took them a while, but they finally responded and swam up to the edge of the pool where Light and Sayu were now standing. "What'cha want?" Matt asked.

"Who's she?" Mello asked.

"This is my sister, Sayu. You guys don't mind if she swims with you do you?"

"You don't mind getting roughed up do you?" Mello asked her.

Matt then punched Mello in the arm. "It sounds really wrong when you say it like that Mello."

"Shut up Matt, you perv."

"Both of you shut up. Don't talk about me like I'm some delicate flower. I'l kick both of your butts." Sayu threatened.

"Go get changed Sayu, just ask Roger where the bathroom is." Light said and she nodded and ran into the house. "Don't take her lightly, she's vicious." Light warned, then walked off to begin his work.

When Sayu came back out she was wearing a pink two piece and her hair was up in a ponytail. Matt and Mello just stared at her for a few seconds before calling her over to the pool. Light scowled. He had told her not to wear the two piece. He didn't trust hormonal pre-teens with his sister's developing body. He made sure to keep an eye on her as he worked.

After an hour or so, Light was suddenly hit by a ball of exploding water. Looked down at his dampened clothes and peeled the remains of a bright orange balloon from his dark green T-shirt. He glanced over towards the source of the water balloon and saw Mello laughing as he prepared to throw another one. Aparently the three of them had been buisy filling several buckets full of water balloons, and matt was still making more.

The balloon was launched and Light was able to avoid it for the most part, however it had exploded against his feet. Light had made his way to the trio and they scattered. Light had grabbed two of the water balloons and just as he was about to throw them, Mello grabbed Sayu around the waist and jumpped into the pool back wards. Sayu let out a surprised screach but when the two of them resurfaced they were laughing. Light smiled at this, but then averted his attention back to Matt and threw his baloons. Matt dodged and threw one of his own narrowly missing Light.

"Hey, three on one is not fair." Light said as Sayu and Mello climbed out of the pool.

"That's your problem." Mello said as he grabbed a balloon, tossed it in the air, and caught it. However, instead of throwing it at Light, he spun around and hit Near with it. "Hey albino, you can be on Light's team."

Near stared back and forth between his sand and the other four, trying to decide what he wanted to do. Then he decided. "Can you wait a few minutes." he asked quietly. Light was actually surprised that Near had agreed to play.

Near got up, dusted himself off, then went inside. While he was gone, Light and Mello's teembegan to divide the balloons, and place them sparatically around the yard to make the game more interesting. When Near returned he was wearing grey swimming trunks and a white t-shirt and his arms were loaded with squirt guns in various sizes and colors.

Everyone was given a gun each, Near took two smaller super soakers claiming that his throwing arm was bad so this would help compensate for that.

And so the water war began.

Light threw a ballon hitting mello in the face. However instead of busting, it bounced off of his face and exploded on the ground at Matt's feet. Mello, pissed taht the balloon had actually smacked against his face, retaliated, throwing two at a time. one missed by a long shot and the other exploded against his leg.

Near was surprisingly a good aim. He managed to catch Mello off gaurd more times than Light could keep track. Matt managed to avoid most of Near's attacks but sayu wasn't that good at dodging them. However to make up for her poor dodging skills, she managed to get Near with a few baloons.

Something appeared out of Light's perifeial, and he quickly turnned and fired his super soaker at the intruder. As soon as he did he froze, because the person he had hit was Ryuzaki.

Ryuzaki silently stared at Light, his face now dripping with water.

"I'm sorry Ryuzaki, I didn't know you were out here." Light appologized.

"I came to return this to Near." L said holing out a rather large super soaker. "He dropped it in the hall way."

"Er... thanks." Light said ackwardly.

"Who's that Light?" Sayu asked.

"That's Ryuzaki, the oldest son. He's a year older than me."

"Really. So you guys are friends right? Why didn't you ask him to play with us?"

"He's not the-"

"How about it, wanna play with us?" Sayu asked cutting Light off. "You can be on Light and Near's team."

Ryuzaki stared at the girl as though she had grown a second head. After a moment he looked up at Light, back at Sayu, then at Light agian. "She's your sister?"

"Yeah, how could you tell?" Light asked.

"I've never seen her before so she's obviously not one of Matt or Mello's friends, and I hightly doubt that you hang out with twelve year olds. Also, you two have the same facial structure" Ryuzaki explained.

"Impressive. then I will bestow courtisys and introduce her. Ryuzaki i would like you to meet my sister Sayu."

"Greetings." L said nodding to the girl.

"Hi." Sayu said simply. "so are you going to play with us or not?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to Ryuzaki." Light said.

Ryuzaki stood there for a few minutes staring at the dripping bodies in front of him, then down at the water gun he was holding. "I suppose it would be fun." Ryuzaki quickly pumped the water gun and sprayed Mello with it.

It took a few seconds for Mello to react. He did a dodge roll when Ryuzaki fired again, and aimed a water balloon at the raven haired teen. It exploded a foot away from Ryuzaki.

WHile Matt and Sayu were distracted, Light and Near sent a torrent of squirt gun fires and water balloons at them. The three of them retreated to restock up on supplies while Light, Near, and Ryuzaki began to formulate their next strategy and stock Ryuzaki up with supplies.

Hours passed and Light found himself suprised that Near and Ryuzaki could be so active and open. Ryuzaki ended up not being as creepy as he had thought. Apparently he had a mild case of paranoia and was wanting to make sure that Light was safe. He never did explain why he was watching him sleep though, which annoyed Light.

Once the sun began to set, Light and Ryuzaki had to call thier game off. They cleaned up the reminants of their water war and once finished, went inside to slip into something dry and warm.

Light, who was dressed and about ready to go to the upstairs bathroom to see if Sayu was ready yet, heard a noise come from Aiber and Wedy's room. Figuring it was just Roger, light decided he would pop in to say bye. What he saw made his blood run cold.

* * *

A/N: Fwa hahaha, for once I am responcible for an evil clifff hanger o'doom

Yes, a filler chapter! Has nothing to do with the actual plot of the story (except that last bit) except to make everyone more open towards each other. I found it amusing that I (unintentionally) put the anti-social ones on Light's team XD

I am sorry to all the Near fans if he hasn't been showing up enough, he's really hard for me to wright. His personality is closed off and he's rather cold and I just recently started liking him (I must thank all of the cute Near cosplayers for that XD)

THis chapter was actually a bit hard to wright, I wrote on it for several days trying to think of what to write next... the end is probably a bit rushed, but i just wanted to get it out of the way already. Anyone notice the plot device from ch 1 yet? XD

you'll love what I've got planned

and for all of you that are wanting Yaoi from this I already told you, this is a friendship fic... you have no clue how much I want to let L snog th crap out of Light, but I am restraining him.

On another note for all of you who are absolutally smitten with this fic, I have an extra-special-awsome suprise for you whin the fic is done, but you'll have to wait XD


	6. Danger

Chapter 6

"Hey Light, What's going on?" Mello asked when he saw light gaping into the room.

Light held a finger to his lips and mouthed, "Get out" to them. Realizing the severity of the situation the boys nodded. The door to Aiber and Wedy's room was wide open and there were four people inside. Luckily for them they were to busy looking for something for them to notice Light standing there. He only hoped that they would stay distracted long enough so the boys could get out of the house.

Light's hopes were shattered when a girl with blond hair and appeared to be somewhere around his age, looked over and saw him. "Momma, we've been spotted."

All four heads were now looking at him. Matt and Mello were at the door; Light hoped he could distract the people long enough for them to escape.

"Ryuk, don't just stand there. Get him!" Said what appeared to be an adult, female equivalent of Near.

Ryuk, who looked like a J rocker with his insanely spiked hair and gothic clothing, approached Light. Light took a defensive stance, ready to attack at any moment. "This one's gutsy Rem."

"Kill him or keep him hostage. Whatever you decide, do it quickly." The albino woman, or rather Rem, said. She tripped over something and sent a glare to an equally albino teenage boy. "Damn it Shido, I thought I told you to move this."

For the first time Light actually took notice to what had been in Rem's way. It was a body. Roger's body.

The blond made her way to where Light and Ryuk were facing off. "Don't kill him daddy, he's too cute."

"Sure thing kiddo." Ryuk said and pulled out a gun and pointed it at Light. "Come willingly or I'll shoot." Light just stood there, frozen in fear. Ryuk fired a warning shot at Light, grazing his cheek. "What are you waiting for, come on."

Light's body refused to comply. It was now shaking violently. "I think you scared him daddy." Light wanted nothing more than to punch that girl in the face. How dare she point out such an obvious weakness to him.

Light spared a glance at Matt and Mello were. They had made it to the door but they were not moving. Their eyes were wide as they stared at Light.

"What are you staring at?" Ryuk asked and Light internally cursed himself. Matt managed to snap back and he swung the front door open. He then grabbed Mello's wrist, ready to run. "Don't think about it. Close the door and come here." Matt looked back and saw that Ryuk had his gun pointed at Light's skull. "How many of you are there?" All three of them were silent.

"What's going on Ryuk?" Rem asked approaching Ryuk.

"We have a problem Rem, the house isn't empty."

Rem poked her head out from the room and saw Matt and Mello by the door. She quickly drew her gun and trained it on the two boys. "Move." She demanded gesturing towards the sofa. "Now!"

Matt and Mello complied, but only because Ryuk still had his gun pressed to Light's temple.

"Is there anyone else in the house?" Ryuk asked in Light's ear.

"Like I'd tell you." Light scoffed.

Ryuk pressed the barrel of his gun harder against Lights head. "I'd watch that mouth of yours if I were you."

"Ryuk, you and Misa watch things down here, Shido and I are going to sweep the upstairs."

Light's breath caught in his chest as Rem and Shido brushed past him, their guns out and ready. He had to think of something. He refused to let his sister get drug into the middle of this. He was forced out of his thoughts when Ryuk shoved him forward and forced him to sit on the loveseat. As soon as he was down Misa jumped up beside him. She was so close that she was practically sitting on his lap

"I'll keep a close eye on this one daddy." She said as she ran her perfectly manicured nails over the front of Light's shirt.

"Arm yourself first." Ryuk said.

Misa rolled her eyes, reached down, and pulled a dagger out from one of her boots. "Happy now?" Ryuk nodded and turned his attention back to Matt and Mello whom were glaring daggers at both him and Misa.

A crash was heard from upstairs along with Sayu's shrill scream and the sound of gunfire. Soon after, Ryuzaki, Sayu and Near were being led downstairs by Rem and Shido.

Ryuk had an annoyed look on his face. "Is that all of them?" Rem gave Ryuk a quick nod. "You." He said grabbing Light by the collar of his shirt and pulling him up. He then slammed the barrel of his gun just under Light's chin. "Who are all of these people?" Light began to rack his brain for a plan, anything that would insure his sister's safety. "Quickly." Ryuk growled, grinding the gun barrel deeper into his skin.

"My name is… Ryuzaki." He started, receiving a questioning stare from the real Ryuzaki. "These are my brothers, Matt, Mello, and Near." He said jesting to them all respectively. "The others are Light and his sister Sayu."

"Why are they here?"

"It's because I work for them." Ryuzaki answered calmly. Light was glad that he was playing along. I brought Sayu along because no one was at home to watch her."

For once Light was glad for Ryuzaki's stalking abilities. All he needed to do now was to get Ryuzaki and Sayu out of the house. "The two of them have nothing to do with what you are doing here, so I would appreciate it if you would let them leave.

Ryuzaki's eyes widened a fraction, but Light could tell that Ryuzaki knew why he wanted him out of the house. Then Ryuk began to laugh. It was an annoying 'hyuk, hyuk' that made Light want to roll his eyes at. When it died down to a chuckle, Ryuk used his free hand to ruffle Lights hair. "You weren't actually expecting me to agree were you? That's cute."

Ryuzaki threw an icy glare at Ryuk before speaking. "If you do not let us go, then my father will arrive here within the hour with sirens blaring."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"My father is NPA, Chief Inspector Soichiro Yagami." Ryuzaki said. This caused Rem's eyes to widen. "If we are not home by a certain time, he is ordered by Ryuzaki's parents to send police assistance."

Silence enveloped the room as Rem thought this over. "Fine, you and the girl may leave, the others stay here."

"Let Near go with them." Light said.

"No." Rem said.

"He's only eight. I at least want to ensure the safety of one of my brothers." Light snapped. "Besides, wouldn't it be easier to keep tabs on three people rather than four."

"He has a point Rem." Ryuk said.

"Fine, but no one else." She growled. She then shoved Near forward. "Leave now."

Light watched as the three of them began to leave, Sayu sending him a sad look before they reached the door.

Suddenly Light felt a tug on his arm, and then saw that Misa was clinging to him. If Ryuk's gun wasn't still pressed under his chin, he would have hit her. "Hey daddy, when we're finished here, can we keep Ryuzaki? He's really really cute, and it would make all my friends jealous."

Light looked away from the annoying girl and saw that Ryuzaki was still standing in the doorway, and he didn't look happy at all.

"It's alright with me sweetie, but I'll have to talk with your mother about it." Ryuk said.

"Thank you daddy." The girl squealed happily. "Please convince her!"

"You really spoil her Ryuk." Rem said with a smile on her face.

"Did you hear that Ryuzaki, you are as good as mine." She said ecstatically, as though the thought of that would make Light happy.

Light kept his eyes trained on Ryuzaki the whole time. It looked like he wanted to kill the girl as much as he did. "Light." Light said. "Leave. Tell your parents that we've got everything under control. There is no need to panic."

Ryuzaki Stared at Light for a couple more seconds, nodded, then left the house.

Ryuk shoved Light on the couch and Misa was practically on top of him again. He glanced over at Matt and Mello who were staring at him in shock. Mello's shock soon evaporated and turned into pure unadulterated loathing.

"Shido, Misa, you two watch them while Ryuk and I continue searching the room." Rem ordered.

"Yes ma'am." Misa said as she whipped out a gun from practically nowhere. He clicked off the safety and pressed the barrel to Light's neck. "I'm ready."

Shido nodded at Rem. "Me too."

Rem and Ryuk then left the room to resume what they were doing before Light had walked in. Ignoring whatever it was Misa was trying to do with him, Light began to formulate a plan.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the late upload. And I'm REALLY sorry for leaving you off on a cliff hanger. I had lost what I had originally written and it sounded a hell of a lot better than this. My time away from this has more than likely made them all incredibly OOC, I am truly sorry, and I hope the next chapters will sound much better. Also, if I still want to do it, when i am done with this one I have already thought of a sequel, and I hope by then I have their personalities back on track xD

I hope you all like the plot twist anyway. Yes, it now has a plot. I'm not sure exactially what it is that Ryuk and Rem are searching for, but I'll probably figure it out before the next chapter.

I'll probably write some more at work tonight


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